Top 10 Mirantis Blogs of 2023: Windows containers, OpenStack images, k0smotron, and more

As 2023 draws to a close, we wanted to share the 10 most popular Mirantis blogs published this year. Whether you’re interested in hands-on tutorials or our latest product news, check out the topics that readers viewed the most!

1. So you want to run Windows containers

This blog gives you a tour of the Windows container landscape and clears up some common questions, including: What’s the difference between Windows containers and Linux containers? What tools are available to help you run and work with containers on Windows? Which tools should you use? The Windows container ecosystem can be confusing as it’s still less developed than its Linux sibling, but it’s also full of diverse solutions, projects, and products that are improving every day.

2. How to manually create an OpenStack image

In order to create a virtual machine (VM) on OpenStack, you'll need to have an image that serves as a basis for it. There are several ways to create your own image using open source tools, and this hands-on tutorial explains two approaches: one on the command line, and one (mostly) using the GUI-driven virtualization software VirtualBox. For either approach, you will need access to a Linux environment.

3. Are there Realistic Alternatives to VMware?

Broadcom has already begun layoffs of 2,000+ VMware employees. Analysts have been warning of a slew of negative implications for existing customers based on Broadcom’s history of rightsizing companies it acquires, such as LSI, Brocade, CA Technologies and Symantec, including several whose market reputation worsened post-takeover. Now that Broadcom has officially completed the acquisition, here are five fundamental questions that VMware shops need to ask right now.

4. Introducing k0smotron

As more organizations adopt Kubernetes and scale out their deployments, managing multiple clusters can be a daunting task. In July, Mirantis announced our latest open source project — k0smotron — which enables you to consolidate your Kubernetes control planes, simplify your management, and reduce operational costs. By putting Kubernetes in Kubernetes, k0smotron enables you to treat your Kubernetes cluster control planes like any other Kubernetes resource. It’s great for organizations that have multiple development teams, each requiring their own dedicated clusters.

5. How to work with images in OpenStack

Yes, it’s another tutorial on OpenStack images! This topic’s popularity shows the value of OpenStack infrastructure-as-a-service for digital transformation, especially as more organizations seek open source alternatives to VMware virtualization. For infrastructure engineers who don’t want to manually create their own image (as explained in the #2 blog above), this tutorial explains other ways to get an image to use inside an OpenStack cluster: downloading a ready-made virtual machine image pre-built for OpenStack, and converting an existing image from another infrastructure.

6. Getting Started with k0smotron

Need to deliver lots of Kubernetes clusters, dynamically, with minimum operations headaches? k0smotron – an operator-based multi-cluster manager – solves the problem … literally in minutes! This article provides a simple recipe for building a bare-bones multi-cluster Kubernetes-hosting system using open source k0s and k0smotron. Anyone comfortable with Linux commands, AWS EC2, and Kubernetes basics should have no trouble following it. Our recipe should be readily adaptable to other clouds, desktop virtual machines, Linux distros, etc.

7. Windows Server container users: Mirantis is here to support you

On May 1st, 2023, Microsoft retired and removed all “Windows Server with Containers” VM images as well as the DockerMsftProvider API from their services. While existing instances of the affected images will continue to function, users are no longer eligible for container runtime support or security updates. This blog explains why Microsoft made the change, what the change entails, and how customers using Microsoft-provided VM images can continue support by transitioning to the Mirantis-published Windows Server Datacenter with Containers (Mirantis Container Runtime) Azure Marketplace images for Windows Server 2016, 2019, or 2022 or Google Cloud Marketplace image for Windows Server 2019 or 2022.

8. Understanding Kubernetes' new sidecar container feature

This year, the Kubernetes project merged a new feature that enables users to define “sidecar containers” in specifications. The new feature, which was promoted to beta in this month’s Kubernetes v.1.29.0 release, aims to help define behavior for helper containers in multi-container pods that might assist in configuration, networking, log and metrics collection, and other processes. Read this blog to find out what a sidecar container is, how it works, and the use cases it addresses.

9. Security update: Encrypted overlay networks in Moby and Mirantis Container Runtime

During routine work on the Moby project, Mirantis discovered a set of security issues affecting all versions of Docker Engine which include the Swarm mode feature. This includes Mirantis Container Runtime and other projects downstream of Moby. While most users are not directly impacted, these issues could impact some Swarm mode users’ overlay network traffic that was meant to be encrypted. Find out about the CVEs we created to track and identify these vulnerabilities, how we patched them via coordinated security updates, and what you should do to mitigate these issues.

10. 5 challenges that can put your Kubernetes deployments at risk

As companies choose Kubernetes as a core component of their cloud computing strategy, IT leaders are facing challenges, that if left untreated, can completely undermine the promise of their Kubernetes implementations. These potential roadblocks can both limit the success of deployments and hamper the overall adoption of Kubernetes within an organization. Find out the top 5 challenges that IT leaders will need to address in order to gain the most value from their Kubernetes investments.

Thanks for reading our roundup of the most popular blogs of 2023. See you next year!